Harding Turns Defensive Figure Skater Says Her Abduction Story Is True As Skeptics Blitz Radio Airwaves

As radio airwaves sizzled Thursday with skeptics doubting Tonya Harding’s claim that she was abducted by a bushy-haired stranger, the figure skater indignantly defended herself and her story.

“Why would I make up something like this?” Harding asked in an interview with KOIN television. “I have my biggest skating show coming up, since 1994, my first skating appearance.

“Why would I jeopardize all, everything that I’ve been working for? If I wanted publicity I’d talk about my skating. I’d call them up and say, ‘Hey, come on down to the rink and see me skate.”’

Harding told police she confronted a prowler about 1 a.m. Wednesday outside her suburban southeast Portland home. She said the man forced her into her four-wheel-drive pickup at knife-point and made her drive about 30 miles to the rural Mulino area.

Harding said she rammed a tree, a diversionary trick she learned from television, and ran into the woods. As she crouched in the brush, the man ran past, and Harding ran back to her truck and drove back to town.

“Yeah, it did happen,” Harding said, adding of the skeptics, “Well, I guess I’d say that they’re idiots.”

“Why does it always happen to her?” asked one woman who called a radio program on KKRZ. “Everything has to happen to her. It happens every few months, something comes up and she wants a little publicity.”

“In her case,” said KKRZ radio personality John Murphy, “you’ve got to find evidence to make sure that she’s innocent, that she’s telling the truth, which is a shame but she kind of made that bed and now she’s got to lie in it.”

Sheriff’s investigators said they had little reason to doubt Harding’s story and that initial inquiries indicated it checked out. Police said four of Harding’s neighbors reported car break-ins the same night.

Harding was sentenced to probation for participating in the coverup of her ex-husband’s role in the January 1994 attack on her Olympic rival, Nancy Kerrigan, at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. The latest incident occurred as the 1997 Championships were getting under way in Nashville, Tenn.

Police said a number of callers left tips on a hotline, but they were of little value. A police sketch of the assailant was widely circulated around the state. Harding’s godparents in Vancouver, Wash., offered a $1,500 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

“I feel for her and for other women’s safety,” godmother Linda Lewis said. “I’d like to make it known to the perpetrator that he’s not going to get away with this.”